Media Room

A listing of when and where Metropolitan New York congregations and members appear in the media. For more information or to share an article with us, contact Rebekah Thornhill.

Tennessee Williams’s Rare Play, Orpheus Descending, Hits the Stage

May 05, 2016

The current theater trend running through the thesbian world is a reexamination and revitalization of Tennessee Williams's lesser known works. Currently, Beth Bartley and Irene Glezos, in association with the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, are presenting Orpheus Descending, a production that’s skillfully directed by Austin Pendleton.

The play originally premiered in 1940 in Boston under the title Battle of Angels. It closed amid scandal for its controversial juxtaposition of religion and sexuality. Later, however, the play was rewritten by Williams and arrived on Broadway in 1957 as Orpheus Descending. While a critical and commercial flop, The New York Times's critic Brooks Atkinson praised the script and the play was revived on Broadway in 1989. It now returns to New York at St. John’s Lutheran Church.